Many spiritual teachers have emphasised the notion of being fully present ‘in the now’. Proponents of meditative practices of various sorts tout meditation as a way of immersing oneself fully in the present moment, and not attending to the past or future. The spiritual teachers (including prominent authors) and proponents of meditation typically point to many benefits of being fully present in the now. As the influential contemporary author Eckhart Tolle puts it in his book The Power of Now (1997):
Since ancient times, spiritual masters of all traditions have pointed to the Now as the key to the spiritual dimension.
Some, however, don’t leave it at that. They don’t simply argue for the advantages of presence in the current moment on the basis of psychological or other practical benefits. Rather, they point to the ‘singularity’ of the present moment: the idea that the now is all we have (temporally). I will use singular, in the claim ‘The present moment is singular’, to refer to this idea of ‘being the one and only’. The ‘singularity thesis’ is the idea that the present moment is all we have – the one and only time. The Flaming Lips remind us of this in their song All We Have Is Now (2002). What I will dub the ‘connection thesis’ is a central claim of various spiritual practitioners, authors, lecturers and workshop leaders; it’s the contention that we should focus our full attention on the present moment precisely because of its singularity.
